Parashat Devarim- This is YOUR Future

Eileh had’varim asher diber Moshe el kol Yisrael b’eiver haYardein bamidbar baArava…. Vay’hi b’arba’im shanah b’ashtei-asar chodesh b’echad lachodesh diber Moshe el b’nei Yisrael k’chol asher tzivah A’donai oto aleihem.

These are the words that Moshe spoke to all of Israel across the Jordan in the wilderness, in the Arava…. And it was in the fortieth year, in the eleventh month, on the first of the month that Moshe spoke to the children of Israel according to all that A’donai had commanded to them. (D’varim 1:1, 3)

These are the words… The book of D’varim is a summary of the Torah, not the entire previous books, but the teachings that God gave to the Israelites throughout the years of their wandering in the midbar. After forty years of daily wandering, Moshe takes it upon himself to remind the children of Israel all that God had commanded. In the forty years prior, as the commandments are presented, the Israelites are involved in the day-to-day grind of living in a wilderness. In the day-to-day they cannot be properly focused on God’s commands. They complain. They wheedle. They whine. They are focused on their needs, the needs of a large people living in a wilderness without a permanent home. Now, standing on the banks of the Jordan, looking forward into the land, their land, the land for which they’d been searching, even though it was right there all along, for the first time since Jacob went down to Egypt with his family, the Israelites have a future.

As a people in the wilderness, the Israelites are without a future. They are in a holding pattern, waiting for the generations to die off. But now they are glimpsing their future, and the mitzvot must be revisioned and reinterpreted in this context. This is also in preparation for the passing on of the mantle of leadership. Moshe has not only been the leader, he has been the repository of all Jewish knowledge. Joshua is not the same type of leader as Moshe. He is a military leader not a shepherd. In the coming years, Joshua will be dedicated to the reconquering of the land of Israel. The Israelites will no longer be in one camp. They will be spread throughout the land. The time has come for the Torah to be shared amongst all the Israelites, as it was meant to from the start. Next week, in parashat V’etchanan, as Moshe continues his discourse he quotes the statement of faith originally stated by Jacob’s sons, we are all reminded of our connection to God and to the mitzvot. From now on, they are to be kept in our hearts, the Jewish seat of intellect. We are to speak about them every day. No longer do we have one person who embodies this knowledge and connection to God. We are each this person. From this moment on we each become the leader, the teacher, the embodiment of what it means to be a Jew.